Nuno Espirito Santos watched his Wolves side put in a dominating performance against Ajax

“This was a great run out against the kind of team we can expect to come up against this season.

“We all know how good Ajax are. Everyone has known for years the kind of football they play and how they keep possession. But overall I thought we handled them well.

“I was up against Klaas Jan Huntelaar and that was fantastic. But we’ve had some good tests against Young Boys and Basel in Switzerland and the fixtures are coming thick and fast before the big kick off on August 11.”

Having won the unfortunately named Uhrencup (the trophy nobody takes a celebratory swig from!) with an impressive 4-0 win over Swiss champs Young Boys at the weekend, Wolves stepped it up a notch against Ajax – in Walsall of all places!

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The Manchester United defender will be determined to return Ajax to their position of power, domestically at least.

But money talks and there is probably more likelihood of Wolves becoming a force in Europe over the next decade than the once dominant Dutch club which gifted the world Johann Cruyff.

Diogo Jota’s touch let him down after Neves sent him through on goal after 32 minutes, before the Portuguese almost caught Ajax’s erratic goalie Andre Onana napping with a cheeky free kick from 35 yards.

However it was Ajax who scored on the stroke of half-time to undo Wolves’ previous good work.

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Blond midfielder Van de Beek provided the bombshell when he drifted by three defenders before rifling the ball beyond third-choice goalie Will Norris.

Although Wolves had Portuguese World Cup keeper Rui Patricio on the bench, it was last season’s No1 John Ruddy who replaced Norris at the break and he showed his worth to deny David Neres with a crucial late save.